Public Statements

Hoover Power Allocation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Mrs. NAPOLITANO. I thank Congressman Bishop, Congressman Sablan, but especially Congressman Hastings and our staff for working on this bill.

I rise in support of H.R. 470, the Hoover Power Allocation Act of 2011, as amended. And I agree with my colleague, I agree with his remarks. Hydropower is a very valuable resource for our country. The power produced at Hoover provides a renewable, very affordable and accessible resource to the American Southwest, more specifically the States of California, my State, Nevada, and Arizona, and has 30 million residents, businesses, farms, and tribes that benefit from its renewable power.

A new provision in the legislation, which my colleague talked about, would create an additional Schedule D, where power will be made available to eligible tribes and other users. And I'm hoping that those eligible users are mostly tribes because they've been kept out of the loop for many generations, and I think it's time that we put them up in the priority status, rather than at the end of the line as normally happens.

Western Area Power Administration has committed to implementing a full and transparent process in the allocation of this valuable resource. And we do expect that the State regulatory agencies of Arizona and Nevada both will follow the same procedures and commitment to an impartial and unbiased allocation determination.

The 50-year timeframe for allocation of this resource also matches the commitment by collaborators to fund the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, a nationally recognized example of how diverse stakeholders can find solutions, working together, that promote economic growth while protecting more than 100 species, including some endangered species that everybody wants to do away with, all within the Lower Colorado floodplain, and this is without litigation.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation has 34 bipartisan cosponsors. This exact same bill, H.R. 4349, which I was the lead sponsor of, as was Senator Reid in the Senate, passed the House in the 111th Congress, and I ask my colleagues now to again not only support but vote for the passage of H.R. 470.